After giving Kashmir a miss, first due to the uncertainty post-August 5 last year and later outbreak of Covid-19, film-makers are once again opting to visit the Valley choosing it as the destination for shooting feature films, TV commercials and music albums.
Secretary Tourism Sarmad Hafeez said Producers’ Guild – an umbrella body of various production houses based in Mumbai – will be visiting the Valley next month for a “familiarisation visit."
“We are inviting 25 film production representatives in January who will be meeting travel industry and other service providers of the Valley. These production houses will be introduced with different scenic locations,” said Hafeez. The Secretary said the film producers will also be sensitised with regard to protocols of Covid-19 which they are expected to follow during shootings.
Even as various filmmakers from Bollywood and the southern film industry have been visiting the Valley of late, people related to the industry have been holidaying here as well. After former Bollywood actress Sana Khan visited the Valley for her honeymoon, more recently Aditya Narayan, TV presenter and son of popular singer Udit Narayan also visited Srinagar and Gulmarg to spend vacations along with his wife.
However, officials said that with the new year, shoots of several telefilms, music videos and feature films have been lined up in the Valley. Bollywood actor John Abraham along with actress Jacqueline Fernandez will be visiting Kashmir next month for shooting of a film “Attack”. “Both the stars are scheduled to be shooting at various locations of the Valley. We are looking forward to the visit as both these actors, especially John is quite fond of Kashmir,” said a tourism player.
The tourism stakeholder said platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Jio Productions have also shown willingness to shoot different short-films in the Valley as “most of locations abroad are out-of-bounds due to Covid-19”.
“We are also planning to have popular Punjabi singing sensation Guru Randhawa here for a shoot of a Hindi music video soon. He will be accompanied by actress Mrinal Thakur,” the tourism player said. “Production houses such as Yashraj Films have a history of shooting films in Kashmir. But with the OTT platform players such as Netflix we are getting to witness production of many medium budget films which are an instant hit with people. Such players are keen on visiting Kashmir for shooting,” he said.
Balaji Telefilms which is known for production of several TV serials and films has also shown interest in the shooting of film projects in Kashmir. “Endemol which produces reality shows might be shooting a reality show “Master Chef” here at a 5-star hotel. That will be one of its kind reality shows with the breathtaking locations with a view of the Dal Lake,” he said.
(The article first appeared in Greaterkasmir.com )